


Around the Bend

by ideallyqualia



Series: Rare Pairs [58]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Universe, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 16:46:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5547839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideallyqualia/pseuds/ideallyqualia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Semi pursues the end of a confession.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Around the Bend

**Author's Note:**

  * For [raggirare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raggirare/gifts).



> I'm not your main gifter, but I wanted to write a late treat, and your ushisemi request caught my eye.

Semi's arm bent up, his hand lazily flopping above his head as he squashed his face into the desk. He was in Tendou's room, limp and uncooperative in his desk chair, and Tendou stood behind him.

"Eita, Eita. It'll be okay," Tendou said, patting Semi's back with barely noticeable effort.

"Are you even listening to me?"

"I'm here for you completely." Tendou removed his hand and stepped back.

"I don't think you are. I don't think you _understand_." Semi's hand fell away, his head turning to look at Tendou.

"Either you tell Wakatoshi something, or you don't, and move on. It doesn't sound hard."

Semi drew his hand over his forehead, rubbing his skin and dragging through his hair. Tendou was right. Inescapably, undeniably, _right_. And Semi couldn't argue with that. His strangled grumble tugged his shoulders forward, and he struggled to not respond and talk himself into a hole.

"Just tell him something. Or I will."

"No you wouldn't."

"I'm very capable." Tendou dipped his chin down to clear his throat. "Wakatoshi, Eita has something he has to tell you, but he can't tell you himself," he rehearsed out loud.

"Really. _Don't_ do it."

Tendou shrugged. "You do it."

"No."

"Then I'll do it."

"I don't understand why you think _you_ have to do something about it."

"Because I'm your concerned friend," Tendou said, but the misplaced amusement pulling at his mouth really coded: entertainment at your expense.

"Fine. Back off, and I'll...say something to him."

"A vague agreement? Now you're getting somewhere, Eita." 

 

* * *

 

He was getting nowhere. Ushijima was standing next to him, staying beside him for minutes in the middle of a break during practice, and Semi couldn't find anything to say. He ran through reels of memory, wracking his head trying to remember what they usually talked about, but he came up with nothing.

Ushijima lowered his sports bottle, wiping his wrist over his mouth as his eyes flicked to Semi. "Do you need me for something?"

"Well, no."

Ushijima's head tilted, slightly, to an angle that brought out the focused depth of his eyes, still determined for practice. Semi felt his stomach tug in a warm twist.

Semi took another drink, swallowing past an itch in his throat. The delay pushed Ushijima's question away, and Ushijima returned his gaze to the currently empty court, deep in thought.

Semi crouched to place his bottle on the floor, and he got back up and slowly began re-stretching his fingers. Faint cracks came from the limbering movements, but it didn't draw Ushijima's attention back.

Tendou walked by, his head raised a little with a grin. Semi's mouth fell into an annoyed simmer at the reminder, his eyes narrowing and shifting to a point in the distance away from Tendou. It didn't prompt any reactions, words, or suggestive gestures, and Tendou continued to pass uneventfully.

Except that brought Semi back to the problem, the distracting trail of thought leading to Ushijima still next to him. Ushijima, tall and calmly still, powerful and quiet, sent a winded rush of awareness filling Semi from the heat of the gym air, from exercise, from the gravitational _pull_ of Ushijima's presence. Semi rubbed a hand at the back of his neck, burning through his head and throat with the need to stall.

"Wakatoshi," he began, his voice unsure. He didn't have a plan.

"Yes?"

Semi stared down, the back of his hand over his mouth in thought. "Do you ever...think about doing something, just us two?"

"You and me?"

Semi nodded. "Just us."

"For what?"

"I'm being hypothetical. I want to know. Do you ever think about it? Just being with me and no one else?"

Ushijima's arms crossed, his shoulder nudging over his mouth after he licked his lips together. "It would be nice, I think."

"Right now was the first time you ever thought about it?"

"No. I thought about it again just now."

Semi idled with his hands again, pressing his fingers back one by one. Ushijima sounded suspiciously elusive, dodging around what Semi said, a little at a time. Semi parsed through Ushijima's words, and by the time he thought he could say something else, break ended, and Semi had to refocus on practice.

Tendou clapped him on the shoulder at the end of practice, startling Semi out of his slouching exhaustion. Semi shrugged him off.

"I'm serious, don't intervene," Semi said.

"I didn't do anything."

"You looked."

"I'm not allowed to look?" Tendou's suddenly sly mouth told Semi that he gave the wrong answer.

"That's not what I meant."

"What did you mean, then?" Tendou asked.

"You can't _look_ like there's something interesting going on."

"Eita. You're really paranoid." Tendou waved him off. "Go try again."

"Not with you around."

Tendou stood up on his toes, raising his hand to Ushijima. "Wakatoshi!"

"Don't call him here," Semi snapped.

Ushijima's head turned at the mention of his name, and he walked over to them. "What is it?"

"Nothing. Can't I call my friend over because we're friends?"

Ushijima regarded him silently. Tendou's smile curled a bit more, and his clasped hands fell to his sides.

"Sorry if he's bothering you," Semi said. Everyone was used to it by now, but still, Tendou could be unconventional and new with his tact in the worst times, even for himself.

"I wasn't in the middle of anything."

"That's still not a reason to let him--Satori, at least _stay_." Semi reached for Tendou's hand, intending to yank him back to their side, but Tendou slipped away and kept walking.

Semi returned to Ushijima, into the mildly confused expression in his face.

"Never mind, forget him," Semi said. He sighed.

Ushijima's mouth pulled into a neutral line, his eyes fixing steady on Semi. "We're alone now, like you suggested earlier."

"It wasn't a suggestion."

"Right, you were being hypothetical."

Semi's feet shuffled. He could've sworn he saw something hopeful in Ushijima, but he didn't trust the line between his memory and imagination for that. "Let's head home. Tendou's already on his way."

Ushijima turned with him in the other direction, and they started walking, their shoes crunching in a low muffle over the grass.

Semi glanced back and forth, from Ushijima's face to the street ahead. "Are you disappointed?"

"In what?"

"Me."

Ushijima made a soft questioning noise from his throat. "I don't have a reason to be."

His head turned slightly, willing a response from Semi, but Semi left them in silence for a little while. His eyes scanned the dimming sky, stars shining from the inking darkness, past the lampposts and streetlights.

Semi's exhaled in an audible breath. "I really like you, Wakatoshi."

Ushijima's interest returned to Semi. "I like you too."

"No, I mean _romantically,_ " Semi insisted, pushing through to keep from thinking about it.

Ushijima turned completely, stopping and drawing Semi into a halt as well. "Eita, I understood what you meant."

"You did? You did," Semi said when he saw Ushijima nod. He coughed. "I said what I wanted. That's all."

Ushijima's eyes softened. "You said what you wanted," he repeated, testing to see if Semi would take it back.

Semi swiveled his head back in the direction they were headed. Tendou was _wrong_ , this wasn't easy at all. Semi didn't know what to do next. Telling him may have been the easiest part.

"It's getting late," Semi decided to say. "Let's go home."

Ushijima nodded, and Semi's shoulders relaxed in relief. He'd figure out the rest tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> (General A/N that exists at the end of all my fics): I find unsolicited concrit really rude, I'm not looking for any. Please don't tell me someone was OOC/something happened you didn't like/it's too short/etc. in any bookmarks or comments.


End file.
